Newark Tech Week to feature eight days of events

The first week in November, Newark will go high-tech, with eight days of events, conferences and roundtables focused on how to use technology no matter what business you're in.

Newark Tech Week will kick off Saturday, Nov. 2, with the TEDx Broad Street conference at Rutgers Business School in Newark, an event that will center on creating change that will promote the revitalization and sustainability of Newark.

That event will be followed by others focused on a variety of tech topics, from how small businesses can use technology to help them grow to exploring the non-obvious uses of technology in the fields of sports, food and entertainment.

"There's a need to really educate people in this city about why they should be interested in learning about tech," Manz said. "I really hope that people start to recognize the ways that they can leverage technology no matter what sector they're in, and that there's really a place for them at the table in terms of using technology and being creators of technology."

The upcoming tech week is the second iteration of the weeklong event. The first came together back in April, when the Brick City Development Corporation saw that a 24-hackathon was coming to Newark in the same week as the TEDxNJIT conference, said Emily Manz, associate of real estate and business attraction at BCDC.

The development corporation thought those two events in close proximity presented a prime opportunity to build an entire week around technology, Manz said. So they partnered with other organizations and added more tech events to that week until it was full.

"There's always a lot of activity in Newark's tech sector, but it's spread out throughout the year," Manz said. "So we thought it would be great to have a lot of cross promotion."

That event was a success, she added. For the Tech Week in November, the BCDC has partnered with the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Rutgers Business School, as well as groups such as Blerdology, which has created the 24-hour minority hackathon series #blackhack.

Events are being added daily, so Manz said those interested in attending should check the Newark Tech Week website frequently for updates. Most events are free, and all registration details are available on the Newark Tech Week website.